The present disclosure relates generally to clothes irons, and more specifically to steam irons.
Clothes irons (also termed clothing irons, flatirons, or simply irons) are well known appliances used for applying heat and pressure to smooth wrinkles in clothing and other fabrics. Clothes irons comprise a heating element that heats up a metallic soleplate, such that the hot soleplate may be pressed against fabric to smooth wrinkles.
Steam irons are a subset of clothes irons. Steam irons enable steam to be produced and applied to clothing in order to increase an iron's ability to smooth wrinkles and/or to enable wrinkles to be smoothed in fabric that may be more difficult to smooth, such as cotton. Steam irons further comprise a water tank and a valve to selectively release water from the water tank onto an interior surface of the hot soleplate. The hot soleplate vaporizes the water and the resulting steam is released through holes in the soleplate.
Steam irons comprise one or more openings for putting water into the water tank. Such tank fill openings are typically quite small such that only a small amount of water may pass through a tank fill opening at any given time. As such, water must be slowly poured into the tank fill opening to prevent water from backing up and overflowing the tank fill opening such that water would spill down the sides of the steam iron, thereby necessitating cleaning up of the spilled water. As water is poured into the water tank through the tank fill opening, the water displaces air in the tank and the displaced air must exit the water tank. Typically, the displaced air must exit the water tank through the tank fill opening, which further reduces the amount of water that may pass through a tank fill opening at any given time. If water is poured too quickly into the tank fill opening, the displaced air will bubble up through the water attempting to pass through the tank fill opening, thereby potentially causing water to spill down the sides of the steam iron.
It has heretofore not been discovered how to create a steam iron that may be quickly and easily be filled with water with a reduced risk of spilling water during the filling process. The steam iron of the following disclosure accomplishes the above and other objectives and overcomes at least the above-described disadvantages of conventional steam irons.